Hong Kong's Oriental Daily reports that Simon Yam has just turned down French director Olivier Assayas' offer of starring in his new project Boarding Gate. Instead, he will join a thriller joint project by Johnnie To, Tsui Hark and Ringo Lam. 　　

 

Both movies will go into production next month.

 

　

 Simon Yam and Johnnie To

 

As Johnnie To's favorite leading man, Simon Yam cannot say no to the project. 　

 

Olivier Assayas once thought he could shoot Boarding Gate partly in Hong Kong to enable Yam to do two projects at the same time. But he later scrapped the plan after falling to find a river in Hong Kong suitable for the story. 　　

 

For the three-director project, each director is solely responsible for about 30 minutes of the movie. These three 30-minute segments are pieced together like a jigsaw puzzle. 　

 

Johnnie To told AFP, "Tsui Hark will first start shooting the film, then Ringo will look at the development of it before shooting the second part, and then I'll complete it with the third part."

 

(CRI June 30, 2006)